Bitcoin Cash, which resulted from a Bitcoin fork, has been championed by its proponents as being more in line with Satoshi Nakamoto's original vision for the cryptocurrency, and as helping to solve some of the problems that Bitcoin currently faces. Critics aren't so sure. Jameson Lopp of BitGo and Roger Ver of Bitcoin.com square off on all this in today's episode.

Gene Epstein returns on the 50th anniversary of William Styron's historical novel The Confessions of Nat Turner, the slave who led a famous revolt in Virginia. Since Styron was a white southerner who wrote a Nat Turner novel in the first person, you can imagine the reception he got in certain quarters. The whole episode tells us a great deal about American society and intellectual life.

Economist Bob Murphy (Ph.D., NYU) and podcaster Todd Lewis square off in the central debate of anarcho-capitalism: is government truly necessary for national defense, or could the free market provide this service?

Dr. Robert Epstein, former editor of Psychology Today, joins me to discuss his research on how various online services, particularly Google and Facebook, can influence the way people think about a great many important things.

J. Gresham Machen, whom many listeners have urged me to do an episode about, taught at Princeton Theological Seminary for many years and was a significant figure in American Presbyterianism who fought against theological liberalism among Protestants. His political views, interestingly enough, were profoundly libertarian.

Dave Rubin, host of the hugely successful Rubin Report, alienated former colleagues (e.g., at The Young Turks Network, where he had been an on-air host) when he openly disapproved of what he saw as an authoritarian, anti-free-speech drift among the Left. Today his YouTube channel has nearly 567,000 subscribers and his show reaches an enormous audience.

He and I discuss this and a lot more, including plenty of listener-supplied questions.

Walter Block, who holds an endowed chair in economics at Loyola University, New Orleans, joins me to cover a smorgasbord of topics: reparations, the environment, whether libertarians may use tax-funded services, the reliability of government statistics, fractional-reserve banking, and more.

We've all heard the usual arguments: the U.S. government entered the Vietnam War because of the domino theory, or because of SEATO treaty obligations, or whatever. The recent Ken Burns PBS series on the war, for example, repeats many conventional arguments about the war.

Gareth Porter, on the other hand, joins me to discuss rather a different interpretation of the war. We cover the origins of the war, the nature of the war (were civilians deliberately targeted?), the Cambodian incursion, and a lot more.

Brett Veinotte of the School Sucks Project just returned from a 40-day cross-country trip, where he held meetings and events highlighting alternative approaches to education. He joins me today to discuss what he found.

Marco Bassani, a professor of the history of political theory at the University of Milan, joins me to discuss a question that has divided libertarians: is the independence of Catalonia from Spain a cause that should be cheered?

According to Dr. Robert Epstein, adolescence is an artificial construct of recent vintage, unknown in earlier times or indeed in many parts of the world today. The creation of this category, and the assumptions that inform it (by state and society alike) have harmed young people, he argues, and are responsible for the anxiety and angst we associate with the teenage years. These problems are not evident in cultures that lack this category. We explore Dr. Epstein's thesis and book in today's episode.

Laura Nicolae, a sophomore at Harvard (and whose father fled communist eastern Europe), made some waves recently with an article for the Harvard Crimson about the cavalier way the campus left treats the subject of communism.

I've long been associated with the cause of nullification of unconstitutional federal laws, having written a book on it. Here I discuss various arguments -- historical, constitutional, and moral -- in favor, with special emphasis toward the end on the moral argument. Thanks to the Tenth Amendment Center for sponsoring this event.

Rothbardian anarcho-capitalists, who make up a substantial proportion of my audience, are often confused by non-libertarian anarchists, who don't seem like real anarchists to them. These anarchists, in turn, feel the same way about anarcho-capitalists. In this episode, Professor Gerard Casey reviews the thought of some of the key thinkers associated with anarchism.

In today's episode I share the remarks I delivered at the Mises Institute's 35th anniversary event in New York City in October 2017. No intra-libertarian drama here; just the hows and whys behind the importance and success of the Mises Institute, a place I truly cherish, and its significance for all of us.

There's one thing in particular that the Austrian School of economics understands better than do other schools, and it helps to explain why the Austrians in turn better understand how the economy works (and what makes it not work). That thing is capital theory. Boring? Nope. Super important. Here's what other economists don't get.

John Duncan (R-TN) has served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 30 years, and is the last Republican in Congress to have voted against the war in Iraq. He joins me to review the claim that the military has been "eviscerated" in recent years.

A promotional video about this school sparked a heated debate among listeners in my private Facebook group. The video describes the school as having no classrooms, tests, or homework, in which the students direct and evaluate themselves, etc. Is this a natural model for libertarians, or is it just plain silly? I talk to a staff member and a student at the school in today's episode.

Jo Ann Cavallo, who chairs the Department of Italian at Columbia University, found herself drawn to libertarianism and the Austrian School of economics because of -- who else? -- Ron Paul. She's now bringing these ideas into her scholarly work, with outstanding results.

Also, I can't resist asking her about Machiavelli, a figure I've never been sure I've gotten quite right.

Seamus Coughlin, creator of Freedom Toons, has mastered the art of using animation to convey libertarian ideas in a way that's genuinely funny, and not at all preachy. I catch up with him on what he's been up to lately, what the animation process is really like, and where he'd like to take his growing empire.

Michael Malice has written an important column for the Observer, on the fragmented politics of the West. In Europe, more and more political parties, favoring incompatible policies and ideologies, are struggling with each other. What does it all mean for liberty?

Economist Peter Leeson has just released a challenging new book, via Stanford University Press, that tries to make sense of seemingly irrational practices from far-off times and places -- ranging from wife sales to trial by battle, as well as things far weirder -- through the lens of economics.

Mark Skousen, who just released the 5th edition of his economics textbook, joins me to discuss quite a few topics, with special emphasis on why the Austrian School sees the economy more clearly than do other schools of thought. He takes on the "circular flow" model, the problems with GDP, and why the standard approach leaves out some of the most important activity in the economy.

Mises was of course one of the great economists, and casual followers rightly credit him for his work on the problems with socialism, or the origins of business cycles, or other topics with obvious policy implications. Often overlooked, however, is how Mises solved a major problem within economics itself, having to do with monetary theory and marginal utility. Bob Murphy joins me to give us an even fuller appreciation of Mises' genius and importance.

Actor and stand-up comedian Owen Benjamin lost not just a gig but also his agent and his management when he suggested that elementary-school children whose parents want to support their "gender transition" probably shouldn't be given hormone blockers. He hasn't backed down, and now, blackballed virtually everywhere, is building up an independent career apart from these creeps.

General John F. Kelly, Chief of Staff to the President, made some comments about the Civil War recently that sent the enforcers of orthodoxy into apoplexy. Here is our calm response to the controversy.

Bitcoin.com CEO Roger Ver joins me to discuss a wide range of topics related to the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, including its recent spike, ideological disputes within the Bitcoin world, the IRS and Bitcoin, whether Bitcoin is in a bubble, and a lot more.

In 2015 Ross Ulbricht was convicted of crimes related to the operation of the Silk Road marketplace, where people could buy and sell goods anonymously. He was sentenced to an astonishing two life sentences plus 40 years. The case was shot through with irregularities, outrages, and horrific precedents. His mother, Lyn Ulbricht, joins me to discuss Ross's case and where it goes from here.

Mike Maharrey, national communications director for the Tenth Amendment Center, joins me for a lesson in local activism, as he describes his public awareness campaign about police surveillance practices. (He's being sued, if you can believe it.)

Bill Binney, a cryptanalyst-mathematician and (formerly) highly placed intelligence official within the National Security Agency (NSA) blew the whistle on NSA activities in 2002. Since then, he's been through everything from a raid on his home to having a sympathetic documentary made about him. He joins me to discuss his ordeal, plus his views on alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 election.

In this episode I talk to Dave Smith and Bob Murphy on Dave's podcast Part of the Problem, recorded aboard the Contra Cruise. We hit on lots of topics: what we'd do without state-run "help the needy" programs, where the biggest threat to liberty is coming from these days, what it means to be a good teacher, what happened to the prospects for liberty after 9/11, and plenty more.

In the age of social media, the quality of discourse seems to have hit a low point. We find ourselves bombarded with criticisms that (to put it mildly) don't rise to the level of an argument. I discuss arguments and non-arguments with Stefan Molyneux, author of the new book The Art of the Argument.

Insurance, as it exists today, is shot through with government subsidies and regulations that make practically everyone worse off. Almost no one besides experts in the field is even aware of the government's role in making insurance premiums higher and insurance products less able to meet the public's needs. Stacey Giulianti, chief legal officer for a Florida insurance company, and who's been practicing law for 25 years, knows all of it inside and out, joins me to tell the story.

Ron Paul joins me for a look at the ten years since the birth of the Ron Paul Revolution, plus a lot more. Topics include the Deep State, the CIA's records on the JFK assassination, the question Edward Snowden asked him, and the present state of the liberty movement.

Businessman and consultant Larry Sharpe, who's seeking the governorship of New York on the Libertarian Party ticket, joins me by popular demand to discuss finding the libertarian message, making it appealing, and what the role of the LP can be.

Today's episode focuses in on three major episodes in American labor history: Haymarket, Homestead, and the Pullman strike. These are generally related with a predictable bias, which this episode challenges.

Gene Epstein of Barron's joins me to discuss Richard Thaler, this year's recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics, who has helped to popularize "behavioral economics," and how to deal with situations in which people behave "irrationally" (that is, unlike the way neoclassical economics expects them to).

We recorded this episode live in Orlando on September 30, 2017. It features Eric July, Michael Malice, Dave Smith, Michael Boldin, and Tom DiLorenzo, along with some surprise guests (Dave Smith and Michael Boldin were also surprises, not being on the official bill).

Lots of fun: Michael Malice dominates Part I, while Part II includes a Dad joke-off between Eric July and me, as well as the roast. Enjoy!

Haven't labor unions improved the standard of living of American workers? Why, wouldn't we not even have the weekend without them? My father belonged to the Teamsters, so I have a natural inclination to side with unions, but the facts won't let me, and in this episode I explain why.

In 2010 I addressed the annual meeting of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. I spoke about government and health care, yes, but I also spoke about state nullification -- not your usual topic at a physicians' gathering.

It's fashionable again for libertarians to urge the abandonment of the nonaggression principle, the bedrock of our entire philosophy. It's dumb, you see. But what they propose in its place is dumb x 1000.

With Donald Trump publicly undermining Rex Tillerson and calling Kim Jong Un "Rocketman," should we be concerned about a potential nuclear conflict? Is there a strategy behind Trump's comments and actions? Michael Malice joins me for an update.

In this episode I check in with James Damore, author of the notorious memo on the "gender gap" in tech, to find out what he's up to now, what his plans are, and how he looks back on the incident that got him fired as a senior software engineer at Google.

Fred Lam is an eCommerce expert who went from washing dishes to doing over $20 million in sales. His book Starting from Zero, which he explains how to get for free in the episode, features a foreword by Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

EDIT: I mistakenly said September 13 in today's episode when I meant September 30 for the 1000th episode live event. Please be there! Details at tomwoods.com/orlando.

The only person in the world I have ever allowed to write in my name is Bob Bly, who wrote the sales copy you see on the home page at LibertyClassroom.com. McGraw-Hill calls him "America's top copywriter." And he knows an enormous amount about it -- and many other things besides.

There's a reason we teach copywriting in the Ron Paul Curriculum: it's an extremely valuable and lucrative skill, and you'd better believe I want my own kids to learn how to do it.

Michael Heise of the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus joins me to discuss the state of the Libertarian Party, and the ambitions of his growing caucus that seeks to recall the party to libertarian principle in its selection of candidates.

Eric Peters -- whom I donate to every month -- returns to discuss creepy features in new cars, the government-led demise of the six-cylinder engine, private companies snooping into your information, and decent cars in the new model year.

People have asked me to discuss this issue, which I've written a book about, so I decided to make it into a bonus episode. (This episode is my appearance on Roger McCaffrey's Catholic Book Radio podcast.)

Ever since the "liturgical reform" of 1969-70, which yielded the modern Mass with which nearly all Catholics are familiar, Catholic traditionalists have urged the return of the traditional Latin Mass -- for reasons of theology, piety, tradition, beauty, and the like.

The issue was not one of language -- the new Mass can also be said in Latin. The issue was the rite itself, which had never been changed wholesale and by committee.

Gerard Casey is the author of what the brilliant David Gordon is calling the best history of political thought he's ever read. We discuss several of his early chapters, on the sophists, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and what libertarians ought to cheer -- or deplore -- in the their work. Brilliant, and a blast.

Dave Smith, the libertarian comedian whose new comedy special Libertas is the number one comedy album on iTunes, joins me for a lively discussion of Trump, foreign policy, Milo, libertarianism, and a lot more.

Is it really true that the American standard of living is falling, and that our children will be worse off than we are? Martin Feldstein challenged this view in the Wall Street Journal. Jeff Herbener joins me to discuss it.

Chris Guillebeau, the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup, returns for his third appearance on the show to discuss how to build up a "side hustle" as an additional income stream. His new book, Side Hustle, walks you through a series of exercises to identify, test, and refine just the right idea for your particular side hustle.

We're taught that Alexander Hamilton is one of the indispensable men in the American story. In his new book -- released just today -- How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America, historian Brion McClanahan takes on this historical icon. In today's discussion we focus in particular on how the federal courts extended the life of some of Hamilton's worst ideas, which we continue to struggle with today.

Michael Cheney is one of the most successful and sought-after affiliate marketers in the world. (That means he earns commissions selling other people's products online.) He's also the guy I've learned more from as an affiliate marketer myself than anyone else. We discuss his successes and failures, the easy vs. the difficult way to make a living online, and the secret to my own affiliate success.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe is one of the most significant libertarian thinkers in the world today. Murray Rothbard could not say enough about his brilliance. Unfortunately, his detractors (and even many of his supporters) have never actually read him. So Stephan Kinsella and I devoted this episode to discussing his body of work. Trust me, this is fun and punchy -- especially as it goes along.

Andrew Torba, creator of the free-speech social media platform Gab, joins me to discuss fighting back against the big companies' ideological jihad against people and institutions expressing unapproved opinions.

Katie Wells of WellnessMama.com is an incredible online success story: her wellness site makes a very nice profit, and allows her to work from home. She has a blog, a podcast, a members' area, an email newsletter, and her own products, so you can learn from her in lots of areas. She recently featured me on her program, and when I saw how successful and impressive she was, I knew I wanted to hear her story on my show.

We often hear it said: if only government could be run like a business, we'd be getting somewhere. The problem isn't that it's difficult to run government like a business. The problem is that it's impossible, given the radical difference between the two kinds of organization.

Robert Nisbet is one of a handful of conservatives to have seen the major problems with American conservatism as we know it. In this episode, Drawn from my remarks at a 2005 mises Institute conference on fascism, I discuss executive power, centralized power, the military, and related superstitions.

Professor Amy Wax wrote an op-ed last month arguing that society's most vulnerable have suffered the most by the collapse of the bourgeois moral consensus. You'll never guess: the screechers called her a "white supremacist."

I hate to dwell on this silliness, so I've decided to make this into a bonus episode rather than one of my five regular weekly episodes. Jason Stapleton invited me on to the Jason Stapleton Program not long ago to address a series of unprovoked attacks on me by Nicholas Sarwark, chairman of the Libertarian National Committee. These attacks speak volumes about the trajectory and ambitions of the Libertarian Party, so for the record I hereby register this discussion as an official episode of the Tom Woods Show.

James O'Keefe has become notorious, and controversial, for his organization's undercover videos -- most recently, of people associated with CNN, who appear to suggest that some of their major stories are politically and ideologically driven. We discuss the American media, criticisms of his work, and what we can expect next.

Today I'm joined by Brent DeRidder of the Liberty Coalition for Disaster Relief and Gret Glyer, creator of the DonorSee philanthropy app, to discuss how private individuals and groups can relieve the suffering associated with this terrible disaster.

During natural disasters, there's a sudden and intense spike in demand for the existing stock of resources. This puts upward pressure on prices, and this upward pressure has salutary effects (which we'll discuss in this episode).

That's not how most people see it. "Price gouging," to the man on the street, involves the unconscionable exploitation of vulnerable people's difficult situations in order to make a quick buck.

With various websites (not all "white nationalist") seeing various Internet services withdrawn from them, and given that our media and political classes are not exactly known for their ability to make fine distinctions, could ever more sites and groups, more or less innocuous, find themselves subjected to this kind of treatment? Lew Rockwell and I discuss this and a heck of a lot else, including the controversy about libertarians and fascism.

By popular demand, popular (and iconoclastic) strength trainer Mark Rippetoe joins me to discuss strength training and fitness (and what so many people get wrong), as well as his libertarian views -- and how it all meshes together.

The "happiness" literature purports to speak about levels of happiness in various countries. Popular journalism then purports to explain why the happiest places are happy -- and it's always because of the state. Is there anything to this research?

Well, this was bound to happen. Brandon Navom of Software Engineers for Liberty was fired from his job for planning to take part in a free speech rally that had nothing to do with anything other than free speech. Hysterics tweeted at his employer that Navom was a Nazi and got him fired with no severance. He is an ordinary libertarian with no unusual views to speak of.

The brilliant Scott Horton, a one-man libertarian foreign-policy think tank, joins me to discuss the Trump policy in Afghanistan, the real history of the war, and why the only sensible approach is to get out.

Peter van Buren returns to the show to discuss his novel Hooper's War, set during World War II. Beneath all the casualty figures and the news reports is something profound and lasting that damages us during war, and the author brings it out even in the context of the "Good War."

The small country of Liechtenstein is run by Prince Hans-Adam II, who is a friend and correspondent of the libertarian economist and philosopher Hans-Hermann Hoppe. In today's episode we tell the untold story about this extraordinary place.

Keith Preston, whose writing I always find interesting and challenging, wrote an excellent overview and analysis of what happened in Charlottesville last weekend. He does the impossible here: this is as dispassionate as it gets. Enjoy.

Patrik Schumacher, a prominent architect in London, stunned the architecture world last year when he came out against housing subsidies and state-funded art schools, and in favor of privatizing, parks, streets, and other public areas. Instead of groveling and apologizing, he's sticking to his guns.

Glenn Jacobs, best known as the enormously popular WWE wrestler Kane, is also a Misesian and a fixture of the liberty movement. He's currently running for mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, and he joins us to discuss the campaign.

As you likely know by now, Google fired James Damore after he wrote an internal memo questioning the assumption that all human differences are due to social conditioning. There is no "libertarian position" on this per se; Google obviously may hire and fire as it pleases. But man was there a lot of libertarian confusion about this.

Some said his firing was "the market" speaking. Some called me a "thick" libertarian for being critical of Google. Some appeared to suggest that libertarians aren't allowed to criticize private entities.

In this episode I clear up all of these unfortunate (and persistent) confusions.

Dennis Fusaro, a longtime political consultant and grassroots activist, found himself in a legal battle for over a year because of what he considers the erratic application of unjust laws that curtail freedom of speech. The jury found him not guilty, in what appears to have been a case of jury nullification.

George Orwell has been a mystery to a great many readers. What did he truly believe? Was he a thoroughgoing socialist yet anti-totalitarian? David Ramsay Steele, author of a new book on Orwell, joins me to get to the bottom of it.

In this episode I review the history of rights theories in the West from the Middle Ages through the 20th century. Expect to hear about the medieval canonists, the late scholastics, John Locke, Murray Rothbard, and Hans Hoppe, among others.

Peter van Buren, a 24-year veteran of the State Department, spent a year in Iraq as Team Leader for two Provincial Reconstruction Teams. When you hear what the U.S. government -- which had destroyed much of the country and completely undermined its civil society -- expected him to do, you won't know whether to laugh or cry.

To make things worse, the State Department came after him when he released We Meant Well, the book we discuss in this episode.